SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AFP) – Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was due to meet his allies Friday after a round of golf with Cambodia's prime minister as a row between the two nations deepened.
In a tit-for-tat exchange Thursday, Cambodia expelled a top Thai diplomat and Thailand reciprocated, further worsening relations that plunged after Phnom Penh named Thaksin as an economics adviser.
Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup and living abroad to avoid a jail term for graft, met a group of his supporters before playing golf with Hun Sen in the tourist hub of Siem Reap.
Hun Sen and Cambodian officials laughed and applauded Thaksin's shot as he teed off first Friday morning at the luxurious Angkor Gold Resort.
Hun Sen then followed, having started the day with a ceremony for hundreds of paratroopers who were this week withdrawn from a military standoff at the disputed Thai-Cambodian border.
After the ceremony he met Thaksin at his hotel, where the pair chatted and smiled in the lobby with a handful of the ousted premier's Thai supporters, who thanked Hun Sen for sheltering their leader.
"Don't worry. He's your leader, but he's my brother. Don't worry, he'll be safe," Hun Sen responded.
"It is safe here," Thaksin told his supporters.
He was later due to meet senior members of the pro-Thaksin movement, said government spokesman Khieu Kanharith.
The billionaire telecommunications mogul used his new advisory role to hit out at the government of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva during a lecture in the capital Phnom Penh Thursday, accusing Thai rulers of "false patriotism". Profile: Thaksin's political life
Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong told AFP that the Thai embassy's first secretary was expelled because he "has executed work in contradiction to his position".
Thai foreign ministry spokeswoman Vimon Kidchob said it was then "necessary to take similar action," so Bangkok ordered the Cambodian embassy's first secretary to leave within 48 hours.
Thailand and Cambodia had already recalled their ambassadors from each other's capitals in the mounting quarrel over Phnom Penh's appointment of Thaksin, which was announced last week.
Hun Sen further angered Bangkok on Wednesday by refusing a request for the extradition of Thaksin to serve a two-year prison sentence handed down in September 2008 in a graft case.
Thaksin, whose wide-ranging economic lecture in the capital to some 300 business and government figures was well received, has pledged to help the country understand finance, reduce poverty and lure more foreign investment.
Cambodian officials have indicated he would leave the country Friday or Saturday and was not intending to live there.
Abhisit on Thursday ordered a review of two road construction projects with Cambodia that involved loans of more than 1.4 billion baht (42 million dollars) to Phnom Penh, the finance ministry said.
Thailand has already put all talks and cooperation programmes with Cambodia on hold and also tore up an oil and gas exploration deal signed during Thaksin's time in power.
However, Abhisit has vowed that his government would not seal off border checkpoints and said the rift with Phnom Penh would not lead to violence.
Tensions were already high between the two countries following a series of clashes over disputed territory near an ancient temple and the row threatens to mar a weekend summit of regional leaders with US President Barack Obama.
Twice-elected Thaksin fled Thailand in August 2008, a month before a court sentenced him to two years in jail in a conflict of interest case. He had returned to Thailand just months earlier for the first time since the coup.
But he has retained enormous influence in Thai politics by stirring up protests against the current government, and analysts said that in Hun Sen he had found a new way to push for a return to power.
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